Frequently Asked Questions

• What is Attestation or Legalization of a document?

  In international law, legalization is the process of authenticating or certifying a legal document so a foreign country's legal system will recognize it as valid. Attestation and Legalization refer to the same concept of validating a document as authentic and are used interchangeably.

• Why is attestation/ legalization/Authentication required for certificates and original documents?

  1. Educational Certificates

     To obtain an employment visa/ labour Card in United Arab Emirates for most of the designation
     To pursue higher education in a foreign country
     To write MOH (Ministry of Health) and DOH (Dept. of Health) examinations by doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory technicians, etc.
     To get the equivalent certificates
     

  2. Non Educational Certificates Purpose for Attestation Services:

     To obtain residence visa for wife, children, in-laws
     For the admission of child in a school (via Transfer Certificate)

  3. Power of Attorney

     To obtain the right to sell properties in India
     For the removal of LLC partnership, provided partner in India does not wish to extend the partnership
     

• What is an Apostille?

  The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents, the Apostille Convention, or the Apostille Treaty is an international treaty drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law. It specifies the modalities through which a document issued in one of the signatory countries can be certified for legal purposes in all the other signatory states. Such a certification is called an apostille.

  (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostille_Convention)

• How does an apostille appear? How to identify a genuine apostille to avoid false dealings?

  

  VERY IMPORTANT: An apostille should have the subheading “Convention de la Haye du 5 Octobre 1961”.

• Is my personal information protected?

  Yes, we value our clients' confidentiality. VFS, due to its technologically strengthened team, has some of the strictest ISMS procedures, robust systems and security tools adhering to the information security policies, ensuring no loss of personally identifiable information (PII)

• What is the basic procedure if the document is laminated? Does VFS take care of it?

  Case1: If your document(s) is laminated, please ensure the same is delaminated before being submitted for attestation. Delamination at times causes damage to the document.
  Case2: VFS Global offers to assist you with the delamination of your documents as per clients’ need with an additional charge. Whereas, VFS holds absolutely NO responsibility for such damage should the applicant want their document to be delaminated by VFS Global.

• Why there is no red seal on my document/ certificate?

  The red seal is called the Notarization stamp. Notary attestation is optional. Notary stamp holds no value as such. For educational certificates, attestation is not required from Notary. Whereas for marriage certificate, the notarization attestation is done depending on the states from which the marriage certificate is issued.

• What is Fake attestation?

  Attestation of unauthorized certificates and unauthorized Attestation of certificates are known as Fake attestation. Fake attestation is a crime.

• Does the Indian government accept photocopies of certificates for attestation?

  No, only original documents are accepted by the Govt. of India for attestation.

• Can VFS assist in attestation of foreign issued documents from the Ministry of External Affairs?

  No, Ministry of External Affairs only attests documents of Indian Origin. However, documents issued by High Commission of India in other countries, can be attested by the MEA.

• Can VFS accept the Document which are issued in Punjab for pre-MEA and MEA services?

  No, documents issued in Punjab require the applicant to be present in most of the Pre MEA Attestation processes. Hence, we do not accept Punjab issued documents.

• Can we accept the scans of Fingerprints for attestation from UAE Embassy?

  For Fingerprint scans attestation, applicant needs to be present at the Embassy. Hence, no third party can submit these documents on the applicant’s behalf.

• Can Baptism certificates attested from the MEA?

  No, VFS cannot assist in the same

• Can VFS assist in having church issued certificates attested from the MEA?

  No, VFS cannot assist in the same.

• Can VFS assist in having single status certificates attested by Home Department?

  No, VFS cannot assist in the same.

• Can VFS assist in having private company issued forms attested from the MEA?

  No, VFS cannot assist in having non-government issued forms attested by the MEA.

• Can VFS assist in having “Resume” attested by the MEA?

  No, VFS cannot assist in the same.

• Where MEA or Embassy put attestation stamp on commercial document?

  In case of multiple pages commercial document MEA or Embassy used to attest the page where all the authorized signatory of the company has signed.

For more details please contact our helpdesk or email us at: meaattestation@vfsglobal.com